


Present

by Arsenic



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-09-11
Updated: 2006-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 04:37:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20594831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsenic/pseuds/Arsenic
Summary: Snape doesn't get anything for Rodney.





	Present

**Author's Note:**

> Written for hpshortfics

Severus likes to think about Rodney with a little bit of a sneer to his thoughts. He's entirely sure Rodney returns the favor. Currently, he's thinking about how Rodney, for all his assertions of being above everyone, is so very fastidious about tradition. It's really very Muggle.

The sneer comes off particularly well with that last thought.

When Minerva implemented a visiting scholar plan to open better communications with a small sect of the Muggle world and improve pure-blood understandings of Muggle society, Severus shrugged his shoulders and said, "So long as they stay away from me. I'm too old to be diplomatic."

Minerva pursed her lips. "Sure you weren't merely born that way?"

Rodney is the third scholar-in-residence and at once the most annoying and the least. The others learned to stay away from Severus fairly early into things. Rodney took a different path, insulting Severus's field until Severus deigned to pay attention to him. Severus realizes now that he was probably far too easy, but hindsight is twenty twenty. Albus's portrait sometimes assures him of this. With a smile. Severus really should study up on magical paint-removing techniques.

Rodney has been running around like crazy since the beginning of November getting gifts lined up to send back to all those people he likes to tell Severus about. Severus doesn't really listen, or at least, he only listens enough to say nasty things in appropriate places. Rodney has also explained how complicated it is to coordinate a package arrival through the stargate, and his annoyance at having to work with the American forces.

As Rodney is annoyed with everything, Severus is less than impressed.

It doesn't pass Severus's notice that the one person Rodney doesn't fret over arranging a gift for is him. Bewildered at his focus on this detail, Severus ignores why it might exist. Sometimes being detail-oriented is less than pleasing.

It also doesn't pass Severus's notice that when Rodney shows up at his door on Christmas morning that his smile is just a little bit too sure, like it is when he walks into a room full of people he doesn't know, or when Minerva calls upon him to participate in small talk at the head table. Rodney holds out a small package. "I'm sure you'll find this very useful."

Severus takes the package. It's wrapped in green with a silver bow. He means to say, "I'm sure." Instead he steps back from the door and says, "I didn't get you anything."

On the plus side, he says it with a sneer.

Rodney shrugs the way he always does, with his whole body. It's one of the few things that Severus can never sneer about. The physical unease of the man balanced by the way his passion works its way out practically through his very blood and bones reminds Severus just a little too much of Albus, of Regulus, of. . .good things. Rodney's talking, though, saying something about, ". . .have been unable to determine the similarity of customs between wizarding culture and the so-called Muggle--I have to say I prefer non-magical. . ."

Severus tunes him out and looks down at the gift. He goes about neatly unwrapping the paper. Inside is a vial of the tears of an Antipodean Opaleye. Severus interrupts whatever Rodney is still nattering on about. "Do you know what this is?"

Rodney stands completely still for a moment. "Minerva suggested some of the books in the Restricted Section, saying that you were always looking for rarer ingredients-"

"And you chose one of the most powerful aphrodisiacs known to the Potions field?"

"I, er, well, there was also a section suggesting its powers-"

"So you did?"

Rodney looks at him with the eyes of someone caught in an unexpected full body-bind. His voice is confident, however. "I do not make mistakes in my research, professor."

Severus knows he's making a mistake even as he asks, "Then whatever could you have been thinking?"

Rodney sneers. "That if you hadn't gotten me something useless and silly for Christmas, as most everyone does, you could give me what I really want, and swallow down a drop of that."

Severus leaves the bottle stoppered, setting it gently aside as he moves at a swift pace toward Rodney. "I do believe, doctor, that that will be unnecessary."


End file.
